Dear Sir/Madam,

“Get ready for the solar thermal boom” by attending the 4th European Solar Thermal Energy Conference (estec2009) that will be held at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich on 25-26 May 2009.

estec2009 is the largest conference on solar thermal energy worldwide and the premier international information platform to exchange views on current technological, political and market developments with international key experts from industry, research and politics.

In this newsletter:

• Welcome to the 4th European Solar Thermal Energy Conference
• Highlight of a programme session: Standards and certification
• Austria: Solar thermal market back to dynamic growth in 2008
• European Solar Days, 15-22 May 2009
• Intersolar 2009: Solar thermal industry provides systems technology for large installations
• Conference at a glance
• estec2009 sponsors’ and partners’ acknowledgement
• Contact information

Welcome to the 4th European Solar Thermal Energy Conference


Increasing the use of renewable energies has become a primary concern for policy-makers all over Europe. The European Directive on Renewable Energy Sources – which was agreed upon in December 2008 – covers for the first time also the heating and cooling sector.

And obligations to use solar thermal or other renewables technologies in buildings are spreading in Europe, with Germany being the latest country with such legislation. Last year, consumers saw the oil price surge to 140 $ per barrel and in January Europeans were again reminded that their gas supply depends upon only a very small number of countries. These new framework conditions are creating opportunities for the solar thermal industry. Even though we do not know the economic development of the next one or two years, the medium-term outlook for solar thermal is very bright.

The 4th European Solar Thermal Energy Conference (estec2009) aims to help the solar thermal sector to take advantage of this favourable context. All stakeholders of the solar thermal sector are invited to join us on 25-26 May 2009 at the Bayerischer Hof – one of Germany’s top hotel addresses. Register today and be amongst the more than 600 participants benefiting from the great opportunity estec offers.

The estec2009 programme has been drawn up to help you “get ready for the global solar thermal boom”. It will provide up-to-date information on current and emerging solar thermal markets, newest technological innovations and latest policy developments.

I am looking forward to welcoming you all in Munich at estec2009.

Best regards,

Olivier Drücke
ESTIF President

Highlight of a programme session: Standards and certification


While governments are more and more keen on increasing financial support to the application of solar thermal systems, the development of common standards and certification has become a priority. Common standards and certification are meant to ensure high quality of solar thermal products for consumers and to facilitate access to the market for solar thermal companies, by reducing trade barriers. Because of the high interest in this issue, estec2009 dedicates a specific session to these topics.

Jan-Erik Nielsen of PlanEnergi will give an update of the latest developments in European standards, certification and energy labelling. Ken Guthrie of Sustainability Victoria, will then speak about standardisation at International (ISO) level, which is relevant not only for non-European companies but also for European manufacturers exporting their products to non-European countries.

So far, the Solar Keymark certification is available for collectors (based on EN 12975) and for factory made systems (EN 12976). But the system certification is slowed-down by very rigid requirements, which makes it necessary to separately test and certify each combination of collector and tank sizes. Hans Kerskes of ITW/University of Stuttgart introduces recent work towards a flexible system certification.

The EN 12975 standard specifies standard test methods to check durability, safety and performance for solar thermal collectors - exclusively of liquid heating collectors. Considering growing interest also in solar air collectors, Matthias Rommel of Fraunhofer ISE presents proposals for the extension of this standard so as to include testing of glazed air collectors.

To learn more on these issues, you are invited to attend the parallel session C2 “Standards and certification” which will be held on Tuesday 26 May 2009 from 9:00 to 10:30.

For more information, download the estec2009 Preliminary Conference Programme: www.estec2009.org/programme

Austria: Solar thermal market back to dynamic growth in 2008


Austria is amongst the leading solar thermal markets worldwide. Not only has it the fourth-highest capacity in operation in the European Union – 2.24 GWth (3,200,000 m2) in 2008 – it also has one of the highest solar thermal penetration rates worldwide with almost 370 m2 per 1,000 capita (259 kWth per 1,000 capita).

After a small decrease in the new installations of solar thermal collectors in 2007, the Austrian market grew by around 20% in 2008 with 236 MWth of newly installed capacity (337,200 m2 of collector area).

240,000 households are already using solar systems for domestic hot water preparation and increasingly also for space heating, thus saving more than 100 Mio. EUR in energy costs every year. Two thirds of the new solar thermal systems are installed in new residential buildings but solar thermal is now also more and more used in tourism and industry.

Interestingly, the Austrian solar thermal market shows big disparities, Tirol and Upper Austria being clearly the leading federal states thanks to their long-standing public support of solar thermal. However besides local initiatives, a major campaign was launched at the federal level in 2004. The national market stimulation programme klima:aktiv solarwärme has shown positive results on the development of solar thermal in the country.

Mr. Rudolf Anschober, Environment Minister of Upper Austria will present the highly successful solar thermal support policies in his region within the estec2009 plenary session “The new European and national policy framework for solar thermal – Roundtable discussion with policy-makers from European, national and regional levels” which takes place on Monday 25 May, 14:00-15:30.

For more information, download the estec2009 Preliminary Conference Programme: www.estec2009.org/programme

European Solar Days, 15-22 May 2009


Based on the success of the national “Solar Day”, the first “European Solar Days” were celebrated in May 2008 in 13 European countries. The second edition will take place on 15-22 May 2009 in even more countries.

Coordinated by the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF) in close co-operation with the European Photovoltaic Industry Associations (EPIA), and supported by the Intelligent Energy–Europe Programme of the European Commission, the European Solar Days aim to increase awareness on solar energy in media and public opinion. This campaign – which highlights the new EU Renewables Directive’s objective to increase the share of renewable energies in Europe – wants to convince more people to choose solar thermal heating and cooling option.

In 2008, more than 4 000 events were staged in 13 different countries. Original activities such as bicycle excursions to solar plants, climate and solar quizzes, days of open-doors in companies and visits of houses equipped with solar installations were organised. A big “European” event took place at Brussels’ Parc du Cinquantenaire, bringing together school kids and policy-makers alike.

The first “European Solar Days” attracted more than 250 000 visitors and were met with high interest by local communities, schools, tradesmen and companies. The second edition of the “European Solar Days”, which are currently under preparation, will take place the week before the 4th European Solar Thermal Energy Conference.

The “European Solar Days” and the first results of the 2009 edition will be presented by Roger Hackstock, Secretary General of Austria Solar, in the session B2 “Awareness-raising and marketing” on Monday 25 May from 16:00 to 17:15.

For more information, please go to: www.solardays.eu

Intersolar 2009 Solar thermal industry provides systems technology for large installations


The solar industry has a great vision: to install 1m2 of collector area per EU citizen by 2020. Currently this figure lies at just 0.04m2. In order to reach this goal, solar heating systems must be used to provide space heating in addition to hot water for bathing and showering. Moreover, solar collectors must become the norm for apartment houses and not just for detached or duplex houses as it is currently the case. Solar companies are already developing the technology to meet these demands.

Larger solar storage units are able to absorb more solar energy than ever before, while buffer storage systems, which feed the heating system and supply hot water from "fresh water stations", are also gaining in importance. More and more suppliers are developing systems technology for large installations. The product line-up includes both pre-assembled hydraulic stations, where large collector arrays are linked to the hot water supply, and solar fresh water cascade systems for large-scale users. The Intersolar 2009 trade show will see more than 280 exhibitors from the solar thermal industry display the latest developments in these technology trends from May 27-29 at the New Munich Trade Fair Center.

For further information on Intersolar 2009 and the conference and fringe programme, please visit the website at www.intersolar.de or contact Horst Dufner, info@intersolar.de.

Conference at a glance

estec2009 sponsors


We thank the following sponsors for their support of estec2009:

Gold Sponsor



Silver Sponsors




Bronze Sponsors



Media partners




Supported by

Contact Information
European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF)
Rue d’Arlon 63-67
B - 1040 Brussels
Tel.: +32 2 546 19 38
Fax: +32 2 546 19 39
Email: estec2009@estif.org
Web: www.estec2009.org


Disclaimer: The sole responsibility for the content of this website lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Communities. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

Unsubscribe: If you want to stop receiving this newsletter, please send an email to estec2009@estif.org.

To download this newsletter as a PDF document, please click here.